Steve Scott is a legendary USA miler with accomplishments galore including a 3:47 PR, multiple American records and an astounding 137 sub-4 minute miles. But guess what he might be even more well known for? Steve stated in his excellent book, The Miler*: “I got hooked into a golf scheme that would result in more notoriety than any of my record breaking running performances.”
40 years ago a San Diego road race was looking to drum up publicity and talked Steve into trying to set a Guinness Book of World Record by playing an 18 hole round of golf faster than anyone had before. Steve explains: “The idea is to run as fast you could from one hole to the next, take a deep breath, and play. The rules required that the ball came to a complete stop before you could take a swing. Obviously the better you played, the faster you’d cover the course.”
A typical round of golf with friends takes 4.5 hours or more. A solo round, if you hustle and are not held up by others on the course, might take 2.5 hours.
Steve Scott shot a 95 and absolutely smoked the course in 29 minutes and 30 seconds…and the record was his! In fact Steve is credited with being the catalyst for the sport of “speed golf”.
31 years later in 2013 a couple other extraordinary milers gave it a try. Nick Willis and Bernard Lagat entered the Speed Golf World Championship event at the renowned golf venue, Bandon Dunes in Oregon. It didn’t go so well for the speedy runners. Nick finished 13th and Bernard finished 24th in the event. The winner shot a sweet 77 but was slower than Steve Scott’s performance by a full 10 minutes.
Now that I’m more of a golfer than a runner my admiration for Steve Scott is doubled. He set the standard for sub-4 miles AND for golf pace-of-play!
*You can find Steve Scott’s excellent book here: https://www.amazon.com/Miler-Americas-Legendary-Runner-Triumphs/dp/0028616774/
